The Bureau of Public Health (BOG) wants to increase its mobility in both the coastal plain and the interior. “BOG has to take back the place it used to have. When the BOG was looked at in the past, it was very different. BOG was mobile as far as the interior, but that mobility is no longer there. Everything has slowly fallen away,” says director Radjesh Orie to the news press.
He says that the BOG also had its own boats and could easily reach the areas. However, this is no longer the case. After the Internal War, the situation changed.
“We now do everything from Paramaribo. There is a post in the Nickerie district, but we are working hard to have the BOG everywhere again. What we do now is to go to the areas every month. We have to do inspections everywhere,” says Orie.
In the districts of Brokopondo and Marowijne, control of hygiene and breeding grounds is poor, because the BOG does not have the resources to do the work as it should. Resources and personnel are needed to bring the organization to the level it was then.
The staff, especially the environmental inspectors, must be trained. “We have to look at where we will get the finances to attract the people. The problem is in the coastal plain. However, Paramaribo, Nickerie and Wanica are well covered. In these districts, inspections by the BOG do take place regularly.
The goal that the BOG aims for has not yet been achieved, because this organization is a department within the Ministry of Health. “And with the tight financial resources, not much can be done. There are no internet and telephone lines available. It is not possible to work that way. We’ve been doing this for over a year now and it’s not getting you very far,” explains Orie.
The situation at the BOG is not ideal. The telephone exchange was destroyed in the fire and there were many complaints from society. “We try to ask everywhere and look for what we can do, but it doesn’t work. In this day and age we can’t do anything without a phone,” says the BOG director.
The removal of framework is another problem that the BOG is looking at. Staff leave the organization because the salary is not attractive. In this way we cannot take the BOG to another level.
The BOG commemorated its 95th anniversary on Friday.
